out of whack
by Phillozophy
Summary: "Your watch is off." In which the Mayor points out that Isabelle's watch seems to be off.


**Disclaimer:** ayy i dont own acnl

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"Your watch is off."

Isabelle looks up and the Mayor grins from the other side of the reception desk. "Oh, really?" She mumbles. "I thought I checked it this morning… That's odd."

The Mayor shrugs and waves a flippant hand. "Technical difficulties happen."

The cream Shih Tzu frowns, staring suspiciously at her watch. "Huh. I suppose. Watches _are_ known for getting out of whack every once in a while..."

There's an odd sense of déjà vu all of a sudden as she looks up and sees a small, humored smile on the Mayor's face. Strange.

"May I see your watch?" The Mayor asks politely, reaching out a small, childlike hand.

It's one of the things she's noticed about the Mayor the most; the fact that they are too small and too young.

She remembers when the Mayor first showed up at the train station with nothing but a small bag and the clothes on their back. The little party that Isabelle had gathered quickly assumed that the person that'd showed up out of the station was the new Mayor and had greeted them rightfully so.

What they got was the little child clutching their bag tightly, expression light and humored.

They'd asked if the child was the new Mayor.

The response was confused but not fearful.

But Isabelle had insisted, figuring that it must have been some sort of joke, that this person _must_ be the Mayor.

They had settled their new Mayor in a tent in a corner of the town, a little outcropping next to the river with minimal houses nearby, and she was initially blown away by the complete lack of Bells that the Mayor had on hand.

But they had persisted, rapidly gathering enough finances to purchase a bug net and a fishing rod, with which they continued building up their savings.

The museum was nearly filled up now, after about a year, and their little Mayor now had one of the largest houses and collective finances of their whole town. It was a huge contrast from the broke little child she had first met at the front of the train station.

"Isabelle?" The Mayor asks, ripping her out of her stupor.

She jerks and yips sharply, purely surprise and instinct. "Yes!?" She asks, a little too loud and high pitched. "I'm so sorry, I got so distracted-,"

The Mayor laughs, it's more of a giggle to be honest, eyes crinkling up in a smile. "It's alright. Don't worry about it." The smile quickly forms into a more serious face as they say, "Now, your watch, please?"

"O-Oh, of course! Here." She holds out her paw with the little green watch on it and waits as the Mayor examines it.

The Mayor mumbles quietly as the inspection of Isabelle's watch continues, mumbling words that she doesn't quite recognize.

Isabelle's not exactly sure what the Mayor's doing, but gets increasingly worried as they whisper quietly and fiddle with the settings on her watch.

"Um…Mayor? Are you-,"

"Ahh, there we go!" The Mayor says abruptly and Isabelle jerks back, surprised. "Oh, gosh- Sorry! Didn't mean to surprise you so bad! Are you alright?"

"Y-Yes, I'm fine!" Isabelle stammers, pulling her paw back. "If I may ask, though, what was that about?"

The Mayor rubs at the back of their neck, it's a nervous tic of theirs that she's noticed time and time again over the year, answering, "Oh, I just fixed the time and date on your watch for you."

"Oh… I see." She's not quite sure why the Mayor needed to fix her watch _for_ her, but if it makes them happy, she figures it's alright.

There's a slightly awkward silence between them that Isabelle quickly remedies by asking, "How off was it?"

The Mayor grins sheepishly before responding, "A few days. And about thirty minutes."

She's shocked, initially, by how _off_ her watch was, but that's quickly overtaken by curiosity. "What!? Forwards or backwards?"

"Uh… Backwards."

She leans back in her swivel chair, disappointed by the lack of timekeeping her watch has been doing. "…I guess it's time to get a new watch, then."

The Mayor laughs and picks at a bandage on their cheek; they got scratched after tripping into the river one afternoon, "I dunno… It's been doing okay so far, right? No need to waste any money on a new watch, in my opinion."

Isabelle shrugs. "I suppose."

There's a more comfortable silence before the Mayor claps their hands together, nodding to themselves. "Well, I'll be taking my leave now! Got a lot of stuff to do today; it's a Saturday, after all!"

She frowns momentarily because she was convinced that it was a Wednesday last she checked; she risks a quick glance at her computer and _yes, it says Wednesday—_

The Mayor leaves an umbrella that she hadn't realized they had in the corner of the lobby by the entrance before saying, "It's raining pretty hard today. You'll want an umbrella."

And again, she's almost completely certain that it was a very sunny day when she came into the office this morning and she can't hear the rain beating against the roof, she whirls around to look out the window and it's a beautiful, clear day—

"Mayor!" She shouts, but the Mayor pushes the door open before she can stop them.

"See you later."

The door shuts behind them.

There's about two seconds before Isabelle feels an incredibly _jarring_ pull from the pit of her stomach; her fur rises automatically and she leaps out of her chair and onto the floor, hackles rising.

She growls by herself in the Town Hall to the sound of the rain beating against the windows and the roof tiles.

A few minutes pass before she stands up again, brushing her skirt and shirt off before wondering what exactly that was all about.

She settles back into her chair and back to her desk before looking carefully at the time and date displayed on her monitor.

 _Saturday, 7/17/16, 1:35 P.M._

Her watch reads the same.

Huh.

She looks out the window.

She'll have to thank the Mayor for the umbrella.

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 **A/N:** aaa hope you guys liked that ! this basically came from me and my friends playing acnl and . time travelling so damn much im so sorry isabelle **pls review g uy s**


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